New York’s Finest

by Kung Fu Zu12/17/14
Given the recent discussions about questionable police conduct on Staten Island, I thought I would offer a different view of the NYPD based on personal experience.

Some years back, I was in NYC for business. On the recommendation of a relative, I stayed at a new boutique hotel located in the lower forties. I do not recall the exact address. This hotel was owned and run by a woman who had moved to Manhattan a few years before. For whatever reason, she decided to venture out on her own and become an entrepreneur. As anyone who has started a small business will know, the owner will be involved at every level of the business. Such was the case with this woman, who answered the phone, ran the front desk and showed guests to their rooms.

Having run a small business myself, I was always interested in speaking to others who had the gumption to jump out of the corporate world with a vision of building a new venture from the ground up. So, I was naturally curious about the hotel owner’s story. After chatting with her at the front desk, I invited the lady to an early dinner so we could exchange business tales.

At the agreed hour, we met in the lobby and started out to a small deli she frequented. We strolled down to 38th or 39th street and turned left. About two thirds down the block there was a black woman in white stretch pants, with a distinctive floral design, sitting on the stoop. She was speaking to a black man who reminded me of J.J. in “Good Times”. The man was wearing a pair of colored jeans and a dress shirt which had not been tucked into his pants. But his real fashion statement was the railroad engineer’s cap atop his head.

Surprisingly for New York City, there was only one parked car on the whole road. And it sat just across from the where the man and woman were talking. The car’s windows were closed and the doors were locked. Nevertheless, a quick glaze was all one needed to see a back seat full of clothes and a briefcase on the front seat.

My acquaintance and I kept walking, but by the time we reached the intersection the “do not walk” sign was flashing so we stopped. While we stood there waiting there was a loud “thump” behind us. I looked back and was surprised to see a pair of legs hanging from the car’s window. In short order, the torso, arms and head emerged from the car holding an armful of clothes. These body parts belonged to the man in the engineer cap who had obviously broken the car window, (there was broken glass scattered on the sidewalk next to the car) in order to help himself to contents of the lonely compact. These were passed to the woman in the stretch pants who took the loot inside a nearby door. This unloading operation continued as we, and others, watched in full daylight. Once the car had been emptied of its valuables, the Engineer, as I will now call him, sauntered back down the block in the direction from which we had come. He waited patiently at the corner, for the light to change, and then disappeared behind the buildings on the next block.

Both my date and I were amazed at the brazen behavior of the thieves and discussed what we should do. Luckily, there was a telephone booth across the street and my date thought it would be best to immediately call the police and report the crime.

We made the call and the police operator asked us to wait for a policeman to show up and contact us. We resigned ourselves to standing around waiting for a patrolman who might take some time to contact us. So you can imagine our amazement when in a couple of minutes a blue-jeaned blond haired man with a Fu Man Chu moustache approached us and pulled out from beneath his shirt a gold detective badge hanging from a heavy chain around his neck. He was an undercover cop who happened to working in the area.

We described the crime and people involved and the cop, at once, knew who we were talking about. The policeman told us the man in question was a notorious petty criminal living on the government’s dime in a “welfare” hotel around the corner. According to the detective, the good citizens of the U.S.A. were paying the hotel $700 or $800 every two weeks to afford the Engineer a roof over his head.

Taking a small walkie-talkie out of his back pocket, our new friend contacted uniformed police in the area, explained the situation, and asked them to pick up the Engineer and bring him to the scene of the crime. A police van sped up to where we were waiting within five minutes. In the back sat the Engineer. My undercover friend asked me if the Engineer was the person I had seen stealing the car’s contents. I asked to have the Engineer step out of the van so I could see him clearly. He followed this request and I confirmed it was he. They packed him back into the van and departed. One of the police who had come in the van stayed at the scene and advised us the Engineer had entered his hotel only minutes before they arrived, so the timing of his arrival matched that of our phone call to the police.

About this time, the owner of the car, a young Iranian student, arrived and was shocked to see his empty car with its shattered back window. He started moaning about what had happened and that he had not only lost some clothes, but that his wallet and watch had also been in the car. The police listened patiently and then said we needed to come with them to the precinct and make a report.

When we arrived at the station, sat the Engineer and his lady friend where sitting in a small room. We went into a separate room which had the stolen clothes, watch and wallet laid out on a table. The police had found these in the possession of the Engineer’s lady-friend.

As we waited, my date and I spoke with our undercover friend who thanked us again for our actions. He was especially pleased that we had handled things exactly as the police recommend, i.e. we saw a crime being committed, reported it and worked with the police to solve it. He further stressed that we were absolutely correct not to approach the criminal “in the act” as could have led to violence and our injury. I vaguely recall him mentioning something about the possibility of “being stuck with a knife”. He then asked, “You aren’t from New York are you?” We both confirmed his suspicion and asked him why he would ask that. His answer was that basically New Yorkers wouldn’t normally get involved with such things.

The Engineer and his lady friend were then instructed to walk out to us for identification purposes. My date and I re-confirmed they were the people we had originally seen committing the crime. Both were then marched off to some holding cell.

Our undercover friend mentioned that the man was regularly brought to the station as a suspect in some recent theft and held over the weekend. But come Monday morning, the police could not hold him any longer because nobody would come forward as an official witness. Thus, the Engineer would go back to his government paid hotel room until the next encounter with the law. But this time the police were all smiles. The Engineer had been caught stealing property with a value over $1,500.00. And since we were willing to testify against him, the police were sure the Engineer would be going away for a couple of years or so.

After filling out the necessary papers, the police asked us to sign the official report as witnesses. I believe having seen the Engineer up close and, more importantly, the Engineer having seen us my date became nervous. She hesitated to sign saying she was somewhat worried he might come after her if she did. I believe the policemen actually did point out this possibility to us and understood her reticence.

I smiled at the policeman and asked, “Where do I sign?” He showed me where and, with something of a theatrical flourish, I put down my name, commenting as I did, “The guy will have to come a long way to find me.” I was not being brave, just realistic. I lived in Hong Kong.

We shook hands with our undercover friend and he left us in the care of a young uniformed officer by the name of O’Shaughnessy. I made some observation about every uniformed officer I had seen being Irish, and the young man smiled. As we were leaving, I mentioned to officer O’Shaughnessy how impressed I was with the way the police had handled the situation, especially with their efficiency. He grinned, shook my hand and replied, “Well, you know we are New York’s Finest.” • (1454 views)

A very nice tale. I’ve been in New York City a few times that I recall. In 1961 we did some touring on the way to my father’s next appointment as Assistant Army Attache to Greece (we traveled on an Army transport from NYC), and in 1964 we did some more (mainly at the World’s Fair) on the way back. The only contact I know of with crime then was that (according to family lore, at least) there was a mugging in the next car once when we were traveling by subway (this was probably in 1964).

In 1975 I was there for a week on training at Olivetti (I was a programmer working on cost-estimating for printers). I was a couple of blocks from Central Park, and was sorely tempted to check it out to see if the stories were true, but I chose not to take a chance that they were. Finally, a couple of years later, I had some more training there, but at a facility in Ossining (formerly the town on Sing-Sing). I have no recollection of any dealing with New York’s finest — but then, I never had any problems or saw anyone else having any. (This could have had a different outcome if my 1977 visit had been ill-timed, of course.)

A timely piece and well-told, KFZ – it reminds us that whatever mistakes or worse the police sometimes make, the majority of officers are still honest and dedicated. And should it become necessary to take some drastic action to restore our Republic, it would be wise to do so while this is still the case, for it is my theory that as a nation moves further Left toward dictatorship, the police become more and more corrupted as they are called on to enforce laws that are more and more tyrannical.

it is my theory that as a nation moves further Left toward dictatorship, the police become more and more corrupted as they are called on to enforce laws that are more and more tyrannical.

As a nation moves toward dictatorship and the ruling elite consolidate their positions, the police become a minor level of nobility, if you will. They are part of the apparatus required to control the serfs, thus are given perks and powers which the rest of us will not have.

I have never believed in the inherent “conservativeness” of the military or police, at least “conservativeness” in the sense an American conservative would understand that term. Should anyone believe I am mistaken, I simply point out Trotsky and the Red Army and the Stasi (Stassi?) of East Germany or the various interior ministries in communist states.

As another sign of this, it was recently pointed out to me that numerous city, municipal and county police forces contain a large number of lesbians and to a lesser extent homosexuals. And that the pro-LGBT agenda pushed in many cities originates from these people.

I just read that 2 policemen sitting in their squad car were murdered in Brooklyn. The worthless thug who murdered them ran into a subway and was shot and the world rid of him (possibly by his own hand). If there is any reason to believe that this was in “retaliation” for Brown and Garner, then the race-baiters (from Obama and Holder through Sharpton and Jackson down to the Occupiers and other riotous thugs) as well as their synoptic media propaganda machine should be considered accomplices before the fact.

Further information has come out about the case. When Bill de Bloodyhands went to the hospital where the 2 policemen had been taken, the policeman there justly turned their backs on the man who has encouraged Al Sharpton and other inciters of violence. Amusingly, many of these liberals (including Sharpton, who was calling for the murder of the police just a week earlier) are now making their insincere protestations about how bad the shootings are. I have no idea if the 2 dead policemen were among those who had signed the petition demanding that their enemy the mayor not show up at their funerals if killed on duty.

And while I’m at it, I’ll note that Ed Gillespie at Reason.com was busily pointing out (correctly) that the murderer was the obamathug, not the inciters. But — incorrectly — he took this as a reason to exculpate the inciters. Presumably he also thinks there’s nothing wrong with crying “Fire!” in a crowded theater.

Furthermore, it turns out that the obamathugs who “allegedly” (the words used by de Bloodyhands) attacked 2 policemen on the Brooklyn Bridge a week earlier (roughly while Sharpton was calling for dead cops) were a professor at CUNY and a labor activist for a union heavily linked to de Bloodyhands. No wonder he was so diffident in his comments on the vicious assault.

Also of interest is the Jessica Chambers murder in Mississippi. One article I read recently cited numerous other instances of black obamathugs burning whites alive. In addition, Doug Giles at townhall.com today devoted his own column to the issue, quoting another article that linked the murder to local black gangs and pointing out that Chambers’s father was a minor employee of the local police department.

I have no doubt that Obama, Sharpton de Bloodyhands and most other Leftists in the country are doing their utmost to worsen race relations in this country. The police are simply being used as a pretext.

But this a game the Left had better be very careful playing. Many people are simply fed up with the race-baiting which has increased during this anal orifice’s term. I think lots of blacks see this for what it is and don’t like being played for suckers.

Holder recently said race relations have improved since he has been in office. That can only be considered true if one turns the word improved on its head ala 1984.

Judge Jeanine mentioned this evening that the murderer’s tweet had a few hundred likes as of this morning. That’s bad — but in a nation with over 40 million blacks (and also plenty of venomous white liberals) it’s a tiny percentage overall.

Great story. If those who oppose the police get their way, who will defend the average citizen against crime? Who will protect officials? The long run end of such a trend would be the emergence of networks of warlords and their thugs. Not the recipe for political, economic or social greatness. I just wonder if politicians can see that far ahead?

The problem is that liberals are supported by most criminals, so they have no interest in protecting the innocent from the guilty. And besides, revolutionaries always seek to destroy the forces of order.